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Ask HN: I want to learn to use the terminal, where do I start

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Re: Ask HN: I want to learn to use the terminal, where do I start

#33

Post by giancarlostoro »

Learn how to find files without Finder using the terminal. Basically think of things you do outside of the Terminal and ask yourself “can I do this specifically in the terminal” a lot of times, yes, yes you can.

I also recommend iTerm 2 I think was the terminal emulator we used at a former job. It was really nice, and helped you install gnu utilities which honestly doing command line work without is a pain.

Re: Ask HN: I want to learn to use the terminal, where do I start

#34

Post by dxbednarczyk »

euroderf wrote: post #29
k310 wrote: post #18

Aside: zsh is standard on macs now, thanks to Apple's lawyers freaking out over bash license terms. If you want to change to industry standard bash (I did) then there are three ways to do it. Short: csh -s /bin/bash Others: system settings or terminal settings. [1] https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/terminal/trml113/mac [2] https://www.howtogeek.com/444596/how-to-change-the-default-s... You may want to update bash…

> Apple's lawyers freaking out over bash license terms Interesting! Got a pointer ?

Since macOS Catalina, zsh has been the default. bash switched to GPLv3 awhile back, and to avoid licensing issues, Apple never updated bash past 3.2, which was already well over a decade old at the time.

https://thenextweb.com/news/why-does-macos-catalina-use-zsh-...

Re: Ask HN: I want to learn to use the terminal, where do I start

#35

Post by JohnMakin »

In addition to the other good advice - I would suggest opening your mind to possibilities.

For instance - say you're doing something repetitive and tedious in an AWS console, every day, and it's mostly the exact same task. Let's just say for the sake of argument you have to kick off some codebuild job every day at 8am first thing you go into work - so you log in, click through the UI, select account/region, find the job, etc. Takes you about 5 minutes.

But wait! The AWS CLI can do the same thing - write a simple script to do a repetitive task like that. Instead of spending 5 minutes every day, now you've got a script that you can run in 5 seconds or less, plus it could be possibly integrated into other automation.

Opening your mind to stuff like this will naturally get you to start using the terminal more often. I'd also suggest familiarizing yourself with a text editor like vim or emacs (or whatever flavor you prefer).

Re: Ask HN: I want to learn to use the terminal, where do I start

#38

Post by scop »

The Linux Command Line: A Complete Introduction by William Shotts.

In my own learning I found this to be the single greatest resource for getting to know the terminal. It has the perfect balance of overview/detail, allowing you to cover an immense amount of ground while feeling like you have a grasp on what's going on when you do something. From there you can then consult reference material as needed.

Re: Ask HN: I want to learn to use the terminal, where do I start

#39

Post by tonymet »

Tell us more about what you do during the day so we can help you automate it.

I would start with MacOS Shortcuts.app . It is an accessible approach to automation / scripting that works across all of your apple devices.

Some general "unix" tools found on MacOS Terminal

  * bc -- desk calculator
  * tr -- replace text (translate)
  * grep -- filter text
  * nano -- edit files
  * convert (imagemagick) -- resize images
  * ping / tracert / mtr / iperf3 (advanced) -- network testing
  * top / free -- activity monitor
  * open (macos) -- open current file in Finder
  * pbcopy / pbpaste -- copy / paste stdout
You may need homebrew to install some if they are missing.
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